Product Description

Product Description
In ancient Rome, the career path for ambitious citizens who aspire to become senators is called "The Course of Honor." And this honorable course has an unbreakable rule: A senator is forbidden to marry a slave. When the soldier Vespasian meets an interesting girl frying sausages in the imperial palace, he doesn't know that Caenis is immensely intelligent, or that she holds a position in the household of Antonia, daughter of Mark Anthony and sister-in-law of the Emperor. But soon he's in love, struggling against a world that rejects his lover. And as emperor after emperor plays out deadly, seductive games of lust and conquest, no one envisions that a country-born army man might win the throne-no one except a slave girl who observes the bizarre fortunes of an imperial city and begins a daring course of honor of her own. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

Interesting, if a little too short
Lindsey Davis's Falco books are second only to Elizabeth Peter's as my favorite historical mystery series so I was quite excited to find a reprint of another one of her books in my recommends. I did like this book, which is unrelated to the Falco series, but it was definitely different from her other work.

The Course of Honour is the story of the Emperor Vespasian's rise to power in the coup that followed the Year of the Four Emperors, told through the eyes of his longtime (and long suffering!) mistress, Antonia Caenis. The story covers a number of years, from the end of the reign of Emperor Tiberius to the beginning of the Flavian Dynasty, so it's quite epic in scope.

As always with Davis's work, there's plenty of humor and it gives a good feel for ancient Rome without ever going over-the-top with all the details. However, it isn't a mystery and since it follows actual people from history, it is rather bound by the historical events that took place.

The part I liked best about this book was also the part that might be called the weakest - that it is told through the eyes of Caenis, an imperial freedwoman. Her `Average Joe' perspective cast these well known events into a fascinating, and more realistic, light. It also helped me understand Caenis's pain and her prickly personality. She has to watch the man she loves marry someone for position and loses the people who are closest to her thanks to the bloody politics of the day but still manages to survive it all. Slaves, even when they were freed, certainly didn't have it easy!

On the other hand, Caenis's limited perspective meant that many of the important events were related in passing, through exposition, that got quite dry at times. Almost like reading a newspaper article for a school project. To be fair, I don't see any way that this could have been changed or altered, as Caenis was hardly present for the battles, but it still annoyed me.

At fewer than 300 pages, this book is pretty short, too short really. It's also not particularly illuminating about this messy period of history and it is romanticized, especially where Vespasian is concerned. However, it was an easy read and it certainly is an interesting story. I would recommend it to someone who's interested in daily life and events in the early Roman Empire.

touching and beautiful
I fell in love with Lindsey Davis' writing for her Marcus Didius Falco novels, but what always appealed to me in her writing was the rich historical details and the very real characters and, in this regard, "The Course of Honor" is no different. Based loosely on the true story of the Roman Emperor Vespasian and his life-long love the freedwoman Caenis, this is a sweet and genuine love-story of the sort that usually doesn't move me but manages to in this case.

Lindsey Davis is obviously a devotee of the Emperor Vespasian given that the Falco novels are written during his reign and "The Course of Honor" is about his rise to power. I once saw a historian on television describe Vespasian as "the kind of Emperor you'd knock back beer with while watching the football game" and that IS the man whom the slave (and later freedwoman) Caenis comes to know and love in the course of this novel.

This is a romance and I don't normally enjoy "romance novels" (which are too frequently just excuses for pointless sex-scenes), but this one is different. It's more about heart than heat and takes decades to unfold fully. This story shows a relationship evolve, from familiarity to friendship to love to life-partnership, with devotion and patience playing key roles.

Caenis is a Palace slave when the Senator Sabinus and his younger brother Vespasian stumble across her. It is by no means love at first sight. Her first words to the future Emperor are, in fact, "skip over the Styx!"

Since young Vespasian is expected to pursue a political career, he is about to embark upon the Cursus Honorum (the "Course of Honor"), the mandatory step-by-step political path that any young Roman politician is expected to take. This absents him from Rome for a year, but, at the end of that time, he seeks Caenis out again.

From there, they embark upon a cautious courtship, both well-aware that a relationship between them may be allowed but it will never be ACCEPTED. Vespasian comes and goes in Rome, doing what his family expects of him, absenting himself from the city for months or years at a time.

But, whenever he comes home, he seeks out Caenis. Neither waits for the other. She takes lovers and he marries, but they remain friends throughout.

They fall out of touch. They reconnect. They remain friends.

With Caenis' intercession, Vespasian gains honors under Tiberius and Claudius. Perhaps because of THOSE connections, he falls out of favor under Caligula and again later under Nero. For a time, he is in fear for his life due to Nero's jealousy.

Then the Year of the Four Emperors comes and Vespasian suddenly finds himself acclaimed Emperor by his troops. And, as is written in actual history, the new Emperor refuses to move into the palace without his loyal lover and his best friend in the world...

On a historical note, the true Caenis remained in the Imperial Palace until her death a few years after Vespasian's accession to the throne. This is one of those love stories where, while difficult, everything went right for both characters. And Lindsey Davis does a beautiful and moving job of capturing it without being remotely sappy or fake. And, as always, she immerses you right in the era.

Historical romance that doesn't shortchange the history
It is rare to find a historical romance that is both so insightful as a book of history and believable as a love story.Davis accomplishes one of the most difficult tasks in romance -- she tells the story of a lifelong love affair, which begins while Vespasian and Caenis are young and does not end until they are both in their 60s.We see the ups and downs of the relationship, follow the long periods of time when they are apart (and not necessarily dwelling on one another) and believe in them both as hopeful young lovers and people who have decades of knowledge about each other. The historical detail is excellent; this Rome feels vivid and real without ever stooping to include extraneous, schoolbook info.People who complain about the pace seem to have mistaken this for a thriller, which it is not; besides, it includes poisonings, assassinations, secret trysts, letters written in code -- not my idea of slow!Anyone who enjoys either the history of the early Empire or a mature, intelligent love story will like this very much.

Was this originally a Master's Thesis?
Being a great fan of Lindsey Davis's "Marcus Didius Falco" historical mysteries, in which we get to meet the heroine of this book, I had expected great writing, a fast moving tale, and -- very likely -- first person, either told by Vespasian or Caenis, or perhaps a mutual acquaintance. I'd expected fictional devices like flashbacks and witty conversation on every page.

Instead I got rather worshipful, not too well-characterized third-person chronological narrative of a former slave who became an emperor's mistress. Long passages were without conversation (or very much human interest). My conclusion was that this book was derived from the author's Ancient History MA thesis or PhD dissertation, not the best source for exciting fiction.

The Falco novels are a thousand times better.

What an interesting book!
"What an interesting girl!" thinks young tribune Titus Flavius Vespasianus upon meeting the young slave secretary Caenis, a deeply intelligent, independent, introspective young woman. Caenis remains interesting to him throughout the book and throughout her life--in the way we could all hope to remain interesting to those we love. The book, too, held my attention from beginning to end and actually caused me to cry several times (and I don't normally cry over books). Davis has a fantastic command of historical events and everyday detail, her characters are wonderfully alive and worthy of our sympathy. I would even go so far as to suggest that Falco--much as I love him--does not measure up. ... Read more

Product Description
Marcus Didius Falco is a cynical, hard-boiled investigator living in first-century Rome. His latest case finds him drawn into the world of the Roman religious cults and the murder of a member of the Sacred Brotherhoods.Amazon.com Review
Marcus Didius Falco is back in another lively first-century historical mystery. The Roman investigator, informer, and imperial spy's snappy patter, romantic leanings, strong sense of irony, and penchant for getting into interesting situations have won Lindsey Davis a growing number of fans. Flush with his earnings from an African adventure (Two for the Lions), Falco's just been rewarded for his service to the empire with an unusual bit of political patronage: he's been appointed to the largely ceremonial position of Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, meaning he's in charge of the care and feeding of a gaggle of sacred geese. This un-Falco-like upward mobility is an opportunity for Marcus to move his patrician wife, Helena Justina, and their toddler out of a tenement and into a home of their own. As much as Marcus scoffs at middle-class pretensions, he's not above leaving his seedy surroundings and providing his family with some of the finer things, if only to show his in-laws that he can. But when Helena's brother falls over a corpse that disappears before it can be identified, Falco tosses the geese some food and gets busy finding the connection between the dead man and a 6-year-old girl who's in line to be chosen as the new vestal virgin. That leads him into intrigue, danger, and a confrontation with a former vestal virgin that almost costs him his life. Well paced, with good dialogue, excellent plotting, and a cast of terrific characters surrounding Falco and Helena, including some familiar from earlier stories, One Virgin Too Many shows Davis in top form. Falco the family man is better company than ever. --Jane Adams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Love this series.....
Another great installment of the "Didius Falco" series. Took quite a while to find this particular book, thanks Amazon.
Lindsey Davis never fails to entertain and "Falco" is always good for a chuckle or two as well as well plotted and paced story lines.

Falco 11: a little girl is in trouble

This is the eleventh in a series of excellent detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco. Informers in ancient Rome were something between a private detective and a government spy.

The book begins in May AD74. Falco has just returned from Africa, and had the unpleasant duty of telling is favourite sister that she is now a widow, her husband having been fed to the lions at the end of the previous book. He finds a six-year-old girl, Gaia Laelia, the grand-daughter of one of Rome's senior priests waiting for him. She is convinced that her family want to murder her, but nobody takes her seriously. Neither does Falco and she goes off in a huff.

Falco's scheme to earn the favour of the Emperor, and enough money for promotion to the Equestrian order (middle class) by acting as a tax auditor and earning large sums for both the Empire and himself by cathcing people cheating on their taxes has been successful, and he has finally gained the status he has been searching for the previous ten books or so.

But before he has long to celebrate this status, Gaia Laelia's uncle, another Chief Priest, shows up: the girl is a canddiate to be a Vestal Virgin. And before he knows it, things take a turn for the worse: Falco's brother in law finds a murdered member of a religious order, and then Gaia Laelia disappears. Falco now has to investigate murky goins on among Rome's priestly orders ...

I initially tried this series because I had enjoyed the "Cadfael" mediaeval detective stories by Ellis Peters. Where Cadfael is excellent, Falco is brilliant. Ellis Peters herself (or to use her real name, Edith Pargeter) said of the early books of the series, 'Lindsey Davis continues her exploration of Vespasian's Rome and Marcus Didius Falco's Italy with the same wit and gusto that made "The Silver Pigs" such a dazzling debut and her rueful, self-deprecating hero so irresistibly likeable.'

Funny, exciting, and based on a painstaking effort to re-create the world of the early Roman empire between 70 and 76 AD.

If you have met and enjoyed either the Cadfael or Thraxas series, this is even better.

It isn't absolutely essential to read these stories in sequence, as the mysteries Falco is trying to solve are all self-contained stories and each book can stand on its own. Having said that, there is some ongoing development of characters and relationships and I think reading them in the right order does improve the experience.

The full Falco series, in chronological order, consists at the moment of:

The Silver Pigs
Shadows in Bronze
Venus in Copper
The Iron Hand of Mars
Poseidon's Gold
Last Act in Palmyra
Time to Depart
A Dying Light in Corduba
Three Hands in the Fountain
Two for the Lions
One Virgin Too Many
Ode to a Banker
A Body in the Bath house
The Jupiter Myth
The Accusers
Scandal taks a Holiday
See Delphi and Die
Saturnalia

I have read and can warmly recommend all of these.

Not Free SF Reader
Religious responsibilities.


Falco has, for better or worse, some religious duties to take care of, both personally, even though he doesn't much care for it, and professionally after a girl comes to him for help.

It seems as though something strange is going on in her family, one which is in the running to provide the next vestal virgin.

That is not all though, with problems on Helena's side of the family, and this being a murder mystery type book with a religious theme, you need a cult and a dead person to go along with it.

Another entertaining installment in the Falco series.


3.5 out of 5

a pleasure!
I had a fun time reading "One Virgin Too Many". As with all Falco mysteries, the humor and affection for the characters is delightful and the history lesson goes down like candy. I was glad to see Marcus FINALLY got his promotion to the Equestrian rank. His accompanying appointment as Keeper of the Sacred Poultry is pretty funny! The linked mysteries of a missing child (the top vestal virgin candidate) and a murdered member of a religious order is interesting and inventive. Such likeable characters! It makes reading the story a pleasure even when the action isn't advancing all that quickly.

Someone's Goose is Cooked
This is the eleventh novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elementsthat would be and should be found inthe Roman world of circa AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop.

In this novel Falco becomes embroiled with the religious cults of his beloved Rome after he is approached by a young girl, who claims that someone is trying to kill her. The girl has been proposed as a Vestal Virgin, a highly soughtafter position, although most of the city believe that the voting is fixed and that another girl will win. Falco and Helena are having dinner a few days later with helea's parents, when Camillus Aelianus returns home shaken to the core at discoveringa man's dead body in a Sacred Grove.

Falco has to put his detective's hat on once again, but somewhat reluctantly after all he has recently been given the singular honour of Procurator of the Sacred Geese and he is finding out that the ones with feathers on that strut about and make that stupid noise are not half as attractive as those that haven't and don't . . . ... Read more

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Chapters: Robert Graves, L. Sprague de Camp, David Gemmell, Mary Renault, Lindsey Davis, Gillian Bradshaw, Robert Harris, Colleen Mccullough, Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow, Tom Holt, Jon Edward Martin, Christian Jacq, Steven Pressfield, Steven Saylor, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Nicholas Nicastro, Georg Ebers, John Maddox Roberts, David Wishart, Marek Halter, Christopher Hart, Wallace Breem, Margaret Doody, Lindsay Clarke, Stephen Dando-Collins, Manda Scott, Richard Garfinkle, Scott Oden, Margaret George, Michael Curtis Ford, Robert Montgomerie, Ross Leckie. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 134. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Robert Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 7 December 1985) was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life, he produced more than 140 works. He was the son of the Anglo-Irish writer Alfred Perceval Graves and Amalie von Ranke, a niece of historian Leopold von Ranke. He was the brother of the author Charles Patrick Graves and half-brother of Philip Graves. Graves' poems, together with his translations and innovative interpretations of the Greek Myths, his memoir of his early life, including his role in the First World War, Good-bye to All That, and his historical study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of print. He earned his living from writing, particularly popular historical novels such as I, Claudius; King Jesus; The Golden Fleece; and Count Belisarius. He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts; his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular today for their clarity and entertaining style. Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Graves was born in Wimbledon, the son of an English father and German arist...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=39345 ... Read more

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Chapters: Edith Pargeter, Paul C. Doherty, John Dickson Carr, Lindsey Davis, Michael Jecks, Robert Van Gulik, Arthur Conan Doyle, Barbara Mertz, Peter Berresford Ellis, Margaret Frazer, Simon Scarrow, Susanna Gregory, Steven Saylor, Laura Joh Rowland, C. J. Sansom, John Maddox Roberts, David Wishart, Bernard Knight, Joseph Kanon, Margaret Doody, Alan Gordon, I. J. Parker, Simon Levack, David Donachie, Alys Clare, Kate Sedley, Keith Miles. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 120. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a father of Irish descent, Charles Altamont Doyle, and an Irish mother, née Mary Foley. His parents were married in 1855 and he was one of 10 siblings. Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. The entry in which his baptism is recorded in the register of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and the simple 'Doyle' as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather. Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine. He then went on to Stonyhurst College, but by the time he left the school in 1875, he had rejected Christianity to become an agnostic. From 1876 to 1...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=18951335 ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Lindsey Davis, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2082 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Chapters: Stanley Forman Reed, Doug Moseley, A. J. Smith, Roy Hunter Short, Jody Richards, G. Lindsey Davis, George Tinsley, Henry Kirby Taylor, Edward Lewis Tullis, Urban Valentine Williams Darlington, Dallas Thornton. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 59. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Stanley Forman Reed (December 31, 1884 April 2, 1980) was a noted American attorney who served as United States Solicitor General from 1935 to 1938 and as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1938 to 1957. He was the last Supreme Court Justice who did not graduate from law school (though Justice Robert Jackson who served from 1941-1954 was the last such justice appointed to the Supreme Court). Stanley Reed was born in the small town of Minerva in Mason County, Kentucky, on the last day of 1884 to John and Frances (Forman) Reed. His father was a wealthy physician and a Protestant who adhered to no particular organized church. The Reeds and Formans traced their history to the earliest colonial period in America, and these family heritages were impressed upon young Stanley at an early age. Reed attended Kentucky Wesleyan College and received a B.A. degree in 1902. He then attended Yale University as an undergraduate, and obtained a second B.A. in 1906. He studied law at the University of Virginia (where he was a member of St. Elmo Hall) and Columbia University, but did not obtain a law degree. Reed married the former Winifred Elgin in May 1908. The couple had two sons, John A. and Stanley Jr., and both became attorneys. In 1909 he traveled to France and studied at the Sorbonne, where he obtained his auditeur bénévole. After his studies in France, Reed returned to Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 1910 and established a legal practice in Maysville. He was elected to the Kentucky G...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=349624 ... Read more